Undermining crime is a hot topic in Dutch public administration, policy and media. The mixing of the 'under- and upperworld’, is seen as a societal problem and a creeping threat of the integrity of public administration and its institutions. There is ongoing reporting and evidence that a significant amount of these criminal activities is taking place in and around sport, including a growing concern that undermining crime takes place at the local, amateur sport club level.

The objectives of the project are twofold:
1) Understanding the processes and impact of undermining crime in local sport clubs from the perspective of sport organizations better, by focusing on structural, cultural, social and geographical indicators;
2) Develop input for interventions, such as trainings/workshops, and stimulate discussions on how to deal with and prevent clubs from undermining crime and related integrity issues that emerge in sport.

We focus on a sample of sport clubs, in which processes and mechanisms related to criminal infiltration will be studied by using a mixed methods approach.

• prof. dr. Mariëtte van den Hoven
• dr. Gerald Mollenhorst
• prof. dr. Maarten van Bottenburg
• dr. Ineke Deelen
• prof. dr. Frank van Eekeren

The Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance of Utrecht University collaborate in a research into Sport and Integrity. Central question: What integrity issues are addressed in both professional and amateur football, and how do sport administrators, media and individual players react on specific incidents? The researchers will pay special attention to the interaction between media attention and the action by stakeholders.

The research objective is to gain better insight into the way integrity is constructed (or: negotiated) in football organizatons, which will result in recommendations for administrators and policymakers about ways to discuss and handle integrity issues.

• dr. Kim Loyens
• prof. dr. Eggo Müller
• dr. Pauline van Romondt Vis
• prof. dr. Frank van Eekeren

This interdisciplinary research project investigates how violence among young people in amateur football arises and can be prevented and non-violent interaction stimulated. It will focus on the tension between the need to safeguard sport as a site where young people can freely express and assert themselves and the need to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all participants. Specifically, the project asks what the effects of person-environment transactions, the role of gender performances, notions of competition and the workings of peer pressure, social norms and legal rules are on the behaviour of young footballers. Using a mixed methods approach, the project will develop an integrated multi-level analysis of violent behaviour among young people in amateur football clubs. The first of its kind, this innovative project will produce novel interdisciplinary insights into violence in amateur football and the key mechanisms that cause or impede it. The project will also produce important new knowledge and evidence that can inform the government objective of fostering a safer sporting climate and enhance the capacity of the community sport sector to promote the development of prosocial behaviours, skills and identities in children and adolescents. The research has an excellent potential for future external funding.

• prof. mr. dr. Rianka Rijnhout
• dr. Jeroen Vermeulen

• prof.dr. Ramon Spaaij